Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine — Volume 55, No. 339, January, 1844 eBook

This eBook from the Gutenberg Project consists of approximately 343 pages of information about Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine — Volume 55, No. 339, January, 1844.

Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine — Volume 55, No. 339, January, 1844 eBook

This eBook from the Gutenberg Project consists of approximately 343 pages of information about Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine — Volume 55, No. 339, January, 1844.
hatred of the agricultural interest, is clear; and their evident object is to render the landed proprietors of this country objects of fierce hatred to the inferior orders of the community.  “If a man tells me his story every morning of my life, by the year’s end he will be my master,” said Burke, “and I shall believe him, however untrue and improbable his story may be;” and if, whilst the Anti-corn-law League can display such perseverance, determination, and system, its opponents obstinately remain supine and silent, can any one wonder if such progress be not made by the League, in their demoralizing and revolutionary enterprize, that it will soon be too late to attempt even to arrest?

If this Journal has earned, during a quarter of a century’s career of unwavering consistency and independence, any title to the respect of the Conservative party, we desire now to rely upon that title for the purpose of adding weight to our solemn protest against the want of union and energy—­against the apathy, from whatever cause arising—­now but too visible.  In vain do we and others exert ourselves to the uttermost to diffuse sound political principles by means of the press; in vain do the distinguished leaders of our party fight the battles of the constitution with consummate skill and energy in parliament—­if their exertions be not supported by corresponding energy and activity on the part of the Conservative constituencies, and those persons of talent and influence professing the same principles, by whom they can, and ought to be, easily set in motion.  It is true that persons of liberal education, of a high and generous tone of feeling, of intellectual refinement, are entitled to treat such men as Cobden, Bright, and Acland, with profound contempt, and dislike the notion of personal contact or collision with them, as representatives of the foulest state of ill feeling that can be generated in the worst manufacturing regions—­of sordid avarice, selfishness, envy, and malignity; but they are active—­ever up and doing, and steadily applying themselves, with palatable topics, to the corruption of the hearts of the working classes.  So, unless the persons to whom we allude choose to cast aside their morbid aversions—­to be “UP AND AT them,” in the language of the Duke of Waterloo—­why then will be verified the observation of Burke—­that “if, when bad men combine, the good do not associate, they will fall, one by one—­an unpitied sacrifice in a contemptible struggle.”  Vast as are our forces, they can effect comparatively nothing without union, energy, and system:  with these, their power is tremendous and irresistible.  What we would say, therefore, is—­ORGANIZE!  ORGANIZE!  ORGANIZE!  Let every existing Conservative club or association be stirred up into increased action, and put into real working trim forthwith; and where none such clubs or associations exist, let them be immediately formed, and set into cheerful and spirited motion.  Let them all be placed under the vigilant

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Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine — Volume 55, No. 339, January, 1844 from Project Gutenberg. Public domain.